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In the aftermath, they are stepping up their efforts to thwart any plan that might be afoot among House leadership to jam reform through the House by the end of this year. A group of conservatives plans to meet and strategize this week, and are scouring bills searching for offending language that might somehow slip through their gates.

“We have to man the watchtowers 24/7,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), referring to a feeling among hard-liners that House leaders will try to sneak through immigration measures.

Conservatives intend to huddle this week about immigration, according to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), an outspoken critic of providing legal status to undocumented immigrants and encouraging more legal migration in the future. Brooks declined to disclose more details about the meeting, including how many lawmakers are involved.

“It is difficult to plan a specific course of action when the leadership keeps tossing out vague ways to give amnesty to illegal aliens,” Brooks said. The sophomore lawmaker added: “When we see a specific plan from the House leadership, then those of us who favor American citizens first will have a better idea of where the leadership is specifically going and how we will specifically respond.”

Since the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform last year, House conservatives have fiercely guarded against passage of a large overhaul in their chamber — and even over approval of smaller bills — because they are concerned about a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. This small group of immigration reform opponents is threatening House GOP leadership with their jobs if they take up an overhaul.

These conservatives still believe their leaders would like to see reform succeed — despite its unlikely prospects — and Boehner’s theatrical pantomiming last week in Ohio of conservatives behaving like babies when it comes to an immigration overhaul has not helped matters for them.

Conservatives also took notice of comments from Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, who last week told a local newspaper that she could see immigration legislation making its way to the House floor by August.

“That comment is unfair to the people who are very sincere about their concerns about people who came here illegally,” Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said, referring to Boehner’s remarks. “There are a number of members — we’ll find out over the next few months — who feel like we need a change of leadership. We need a new direction.”

Jones is one of 12 members who voted against Boehner for speaker in January 2013.

Brooks, who supported Boehner for speaker in that election, added that the GOP leadership’s handling of immigration is a reason why House Republicans need to clean house in their top ranks. He noted that the four highest-ranking House GOP leaders — Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and McMorris Rodgers — all hail from blue or purple states. A better balance, Brooks said, would be to have two Republicans in leadership who hail from red states and two from states that favor Obama and Democrats.

A handful of conservatives have not been pacified by assurances from leadership that it isn’t quietly conspiring to carve out a legislative pathway to reform. Furthermore, they aren’t mollified by their party’s rhetoric blaming lack of progress on reform on distrust of President Barack Obama — who they think might not enforce immigration laws in the same way he hasn’t enforced Obamacare.

Boehner and McMorris Rodgers have since walked back their comments somewhat.

Boehner clarified his immigration jokes during a closed-door party meeting Tuesday, and told reporters that it wasn’t mockery of House Republicans, but rather good-natured teasing that’s characteristic of the Ohio Republican.

“There’s no mocking. You all know me. You know, you tease the ones you love, all right?” Boehner said Tuesday. “But some people misunderstood what I had to say.”

And a McMorris Rodgers aide said the lawmaker was simply expressing her personal views on wanting to see immigration reform done, rather than sketching out a legislative timeline.